Archives for
June 2012

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Buyou Quick Pitch: Buyou is a virtual m...

A newly released app called the Swim Guide directs users to the closest and cleanest beaches. Water quality data is sourced from government agencies to provide user information on the water cleanliness for more than 300 California beaches. Created by...

Four billion years from now, the Milky Way galaxy as we know it will cease to exist. Our Milky Way is bound for a head-on collision with the similar-sized Andromeda galaxy, researchers announced today (May 31). Over time, the huge galactic smashup wi...

Since 1994, the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) has worked with the homeless to sell locally produced newspapers or magazines as a way for them to earn a decent living. The Glasgow, Scotland-based non-profit helps journalists set up wee...

Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. Today, we’re looking at three particularly interesting stories. Microsoft Launches Windows 8 Release Preview As ...

Joe Lazauskas is the co-founder and CCO of Faster Times Media, a content studio and consultancy that helps businesses create exceptional articles, videos, blogs, and social media updates. Say hello on Twitter @joelazauskas or via email at joe@thefast...

Google has started notifying users in China when they use search terms that are censored by the Chinese government, the company announced on its official blog. When a user in China types such a keyword into Google's Chinese search site, a warning wil...

Tired of your boring keyboard? Two final-year PhD students at MIT have created a contraption that will jazz up your online life a bit. The MaKey MaKey is an invention kit that turns everyday objects into touchpads. The project was launched on Kicksta...

Microsoft has announced a Windows 8 upgrade program for customers who purchase a Windows 7-based PC from June 2012 until February 2013. Starting tomorrow in 131 markets, including the U.S., consumers who buy a Windows PC pre-installed with Windows 7 ...

The World at Work is powered by GE. This new series highlights the people, projects and startups that are driving innovation and making the world a better place. Name: Benelab Big Idea: Benelab, founded by Seattle teenager Jack Kim, is a search engin...

Brian G. Cheung and Vanessa Krchova from the Miami Ad School created a social media solution called ‘Smirnoff Guardians‘. The idea is for a Facebook campaign, which adds a ‘safe ride’ option next to the like and comment features under posts, allowing...

Brooklyn police have cracked down on a criminal gang with a new kind of informant: the Facebook friend. Officer Michael Rodrigues, who works the Crown Heights beat, needed evidence on a gang that was burglarizing homes with seeming impunity. So he si...

Edna Boone is the senior director of mHIMSS, the mobile health initiative behind HIMSS, the non-profit devoted to the improvement of health through technology. Join the mHIMSS LinkedIn group, and follow her @mHIMSS. Just a decade ago, if someone had ...

How many steps does it take to go from Thomas Kinkade to Mark Rothko? Eighteen, it turns out -- at least if the image you're using is a photo, and the tool you're using is Instagram. The Belgian blog Appelogen decided to find out what would happen if...

Life is suffering. On one hand, you and your significant other really want to play Diablo III. On the other hand, you just want to stay snuggled up in a warm embrace. Reddit user MountCleverest has found a solution that should eradicate this emotiona...

Jesse Draper is creator and host of The Valley Girl Show, through which she's become a spokesperson for startups and helped pioneer the way of new media content distribution. Formerly a Nickelodeon star, Draper is now CEO of Valley Girl‚ where she ov...

It looks like a Marilyn Monroe fan's best friend isn't diamonds... but recent advancements in holographic technology. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a company called Digicon Media is planning to bring the deceased icon back on stage as a hologr...

Quick: How many devices do you have on-hand at this very moment? How often have you checked your social media accounts in the last hour? When was the last time you played a video game? The answers to these questions may seem inconsequential, but tech...

Music-identification service Shazam has taken its users' tagging data -- the number of times people use the mobile app to find out the name or artist of a song they hear -- to predict this summer's most-popular songs. Shazam's director of music, Will...

Many assume the stereotypical image of a country music fan as someone from a rural area who is less tech-savvy, but according to Billboard, that's not the case. Two out of four people buying new technology are country fans. The study also discovered ...

The need for Internet anonymity has been hotly debated since the World Wide Web took form in the early 1990s. Today, social media and more widespread usage of technology have contributed to greater transparency around online identities. While this al...

One of the purposes of photography is to capture a moment in time. For instance, a portrait preserves a person's likeness. A scenic landscape shot encapsulates the environment around you. And an action shot freezes reality for dramatic effect. This w...

Facebook's stock may be dropping -- as of Friday afternoon, it was at $27.52, down nearly $10 from its opening price -- but Sheryl Sandberg is feeling light as a feather. Sandberg, the social network's COO, updated her Facebook Timeline cover photo F...

So you're new to this whole social media thing. Maybe you're savvy enough to know your Facebook from your Twitter, your Pinterest from your Spotify. But what about Tagged? Xing? Futubra? Where do they fit into the social media ecosystem? Just learnin...

The trial of a teenage driver who crashed into a truck while allegedly texting and driving is underway -- and it could have major implications for future texting-while-driving crimes. On Feb. 20, 2011, Aaron Deveau, then 17, from Haverhill, Mass., co...

The U.S. and Israel were responsible for creating the Stuxnet computer worm that wreaked havoc with Iranian nuclear facilities, later spreading to the Internet in 2010. That's according to a report from The New York Times, since confirmed by other ne...

Vadim is the journalist program manager at Facebook and a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Subscribe to him here. Disclaimer: A robot did not write this. Neither did an algorithm. As has been done for centuries, a h...

U.S. consumers with an e-reader or tablet are more likely to read and buy books than those without an e-book compatible tech device, a new infographic suggests. An infographic released by Infographic Labs cites a Pew study finding that those who read...

Cats tend to be sneaky animals, always getting into mischief. Seven year-old Piggy, however, appears to have superpower strength that allows her to climb down the fridge. Think about the kind of trouble she could get into. SEE ALSO: Cats in Space: Th...

As technology advances and our lives get busier, the desire to make our lives more convenient grows stronger. With the rise and rapid evolution of smartphones, everyday tasks that used to require physical action now frequently need just the touch of ...

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